ANGOLA: Humanitarian Concerns over Angola Funding, 4/7/99

ANGOLA: Humanitarian concerns over Angola funding

JOHANNESBURG, 7 April (IRIN) - The humanitarian community
in Angola is concerned that the Kosovo refugee crisis
could divert the attention of donors from what it called
a "drastic situation" in Angola where heavy
fighting has displaced an estimated 700,000 people
in the past four months.

A humanitarian representative in the capital Luanda
told IRIN on Wednesday that the situation in Angola
was "just as desperate" as fighting rages
between government forces and UNITA rebels in many
parts of the country.

In December, as the fighting resumed after the breakdown
of the UN-brokered 1994 Lusaka protocol peace accords,
the UN announced funding requirements of US $66.7 million
for 1999 in its consolidated inter-agency appeal. Six
weeks later, as roads became too dangerous for aid
deliveries, it said an additional US $9.5 million would
be needed for airlift operations over the first six
months of the year.

A spokesman for the UN Humanitarian Coordination Unit
in Angola (UCAH) said WFP was currently flying emergency
food to tens of thousands of people in six towns around
the country where road access had been severed because
of the fighting.

The situation in Kuito, capital of Bie Province, for
example, was growing critical because a UNITA siege
of the town had forced the temporary withdrawal of
humanitarian staff and brought a stop to WFP flights
two weeks ago. Elsewhere in Angola's central highlands
where the fighting has been particularly fierce, humanitarian
agencies fear a major humanitarian crisis because tension
was rising every day.

"The attention on Kosovo in this sense is a worry,"
said Aidan McQuade, the Luanda representative of Oxfam
UK and Ireland. "A lot of donors are saying they
are prepared to support the humanitarian response in
Angola. Now is the moment when that support is most
needed."

He said there was concern that the "increasing
food crisis could translate into increasing hunger"
in many parts of Angola.